April 2026

Economic promotion bodies sign memorandum of understanding between Saarland and the US state of Utah: ramping up trade, investment and innovation

The high-profile ‘Utah-Saarland Business Alliance Forum’ business event, held at the Saarland state delegation in Berlin, today (21/04) played host to the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Saarland and Utah. This deepens and expands the existing collaborations and discussions involving trade, investment and innovation.

In the presence of Governor of Utah Spencer J. Cox and Minister of Economic Affairs Jürgen Barke, gwSaar’s CEO Thomas Schuck and Jefferson Moss (Director of the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity) signed a memorandum of understanding between the Saarland Economic Promotion Corporation and their Utah counterpart.

Governor Spencer J. Cox: ‘This partnership between Utah and Saarland shows what can be achieved if regions with a shared vision for growth and innovation join forces. By expanding our trade and investment collaborations, we are not only strengthening our national economies, but also shaping a more highly networked, robust future.’

Minister of Economic Affairs Jürgen Barke: ‘Combining different strengths and perspectives gives rise to innovation. Today’s signing is systematically expanding the current transatlantic collaborations between Saarland and Utah into a strategic alliance focusing on future-oriented industries. We are creating new opportunities for growth on both sides of the Atlantic.’

gwSaar’s CEO Thomas Schuck: ‘Saarland has a lot of medium-sized companies that are currently operating or seeking to operate on an international scale. We want to support them. With this memorandum, we are expanding existing transatlantic collaborations and creating new markets for contact, cooperation and ultimately sales. This will benefit both companies in both Saarland and the USA.’

This memorandum of understanding will ramp up collaborations between the two states’ economic promotion bodies in the following areas:

• For trade and marketing strategies, this will promote collaborations in future-oriented industries such as the life sciences, aviation and artificial intelligence, as well as increasing networking for companies in these sectors – both between Utah and Saarland, and between the USA and Germany as a whole.
• Investment promotion will focus on production, logistics, information technology, energy and innovation, as well as on sharing information on investment projects and partnership opportunities.
• In terms of information and technology sharing, this will support collaboration, exchange and cooperation projects between universities, research institutions and technology-oriented companies.
• There will also be collaborations relating to the labour market and education, e.g. with educational partnerships and exchange programmes, and in the field of tourism and culture, e.g. by supporting tourism promotion.

This will be achieved through regular consultation between the partners involved and by establishing project groups tasked with enabling cross-border networking, information transfer and knowledge sharing between the relevant sectors and companies.

The American business delegation arrived in Germany on Sunday (19/04). Governor Cox, Minister Barke and CEO Schuck held intense discussions and on Monday attended the Hannover Messe trade fair together to meet with Saarland business representatives at the gwSaar ‘Germany’s Saarland’ joint stand. The delegation then ended their trip with the ‘Utah-Saarland Business Alliance Forum’ industry meeting in Berlin.